Productive Week & The Markings Series
Last week I finally reached (and exceeded) my goal of working in my studio 20 hours a week since the first time since my vacation in mid August. It felt great to finally get things going again.
I finished quilting a large red piece (Structures #57 – photo to come later – I still need to finish it off with a binding, sleeve and label), so my walls were bare having completed all the quilts I had on my design walls at the beginning of the summer.
So I basted 6 quilt tops I designed earlier – 3 Markings quilts and 3 Structures quilts. Two of them finally being some pieces I posted a while back.
Structures #54 ©2006 – top only – still to be quilted:
and Structures #52 ©2006 – top only – still to be quilted:
I hope to complete these 6 pieces by the end of October. That would bring me up to 54 pieces completed in the Structures series and 7 pieces completed in the Markings series.
But still 6 unfinished pieces in Structures and 7 in Markings and a handful of other quilts. So right now I’m still hovering at 20 pieces that have been designed and pieced but not yet quilted.
I wish I could say this means I am totally focusing on the quilting as that is rather a ridiculous number of pieces of unfinished work laying about. But I had an inspiration this weekend and I designed and pieced the 14th quilt top for the Markings series. I’m quite pleased with it and I think once I get a few more of these pieces finished I’ll post a few on my blog. I’m slowly starting to warm up to this new series.
After working on just Structures quilts for 5-6 years the new series has been hard to reconcile. Do I like it, do I not? Is it any good? What am I trying to say? Have I succeeded? Is there enough there to really do a large series?
I still don’t really have answers to some of these questions, which is why I still haven’t posted pictures. When I can answer the questions I’ll be ready to show the work.
Posted by Lisa in: Motivation
I agree with you about having to know what I myself think of my work before I want others’ opinions. It is also interesting that artists / makers combine both the love of visualising and of making because most that I know run their designing of new work alongside their making of others in the pipeline – just as you do.
I very much like the colour and line combinations of the two pieces on this post. They really conjure up landscapes in the USA for me, particularly those I have travelled through in Arizona and Colorado. In Structures 54 I can just see the hazy light and the beauty of electicity or somesuch industrial lines crossing the country. Many people hate them, but in many circumstances I find such elements to be as beautiful as Christo works in the right surroundings. I look forward to seeing images of the new designs.
I have found that while working on a series I have to set it aside for awhile so that I can come back to it with a fresh eye and a clear mind. I have a series that I have been working on for 3 years and it most likely will continue for many more. You might say that it is open ended. For me it is hard to stay focused on one direction. I need to meander on other paths and then come back.
Thanks for your comment on my blog. I love your quilts! They’re absolutely gorgeous.
just found you. what a great blog you have. love your work. really, really great.
Welcome Kelly Rae and Deanna. And thank you both.
Omega, so glad to have outside confirmation my reluctance to post my new series isn’t necessarily all that odd. I get questions asking me when I’ll show it and I’m just not ready yet. I will trust my inner voice and wait until it is right for me. And thank you for the comments on the work – I love hearing what others see in my work and it gives me ways of looking at it myself.
Ed – I stayed focused on that one series for many years – now that I am working on 2 I find both are benefitted by the switching back and forth. The rest and meandering are helpful.